Hello once again. So... We weren't going to do another issue. We were going to take the month off. But, to be honest, all the "best of 2020" things circulating around cyberspace started to get me to thinking that, even though we have only been a publication for a few short months, there's no reason why we still can't provide a critical view of our year.
For this issue we decided amongst ourselves who our "artist of the year", "Duo/Group of the year", "Photo of the year", "News Story of the year", and "Record of the Year" award recipients should be. There's no real criteria per se. No voting... Just us at NSMZ deciding who should get each award based on our own personal opinions. And don't worry, we will have way more awards next year. This is just a little something we threw together at the last minute because, quite frankly, we felt like it.
On top of our awards, our writing staff - myself, Will, Mark and Andrew - each chose three albums that we felt were of particular note that were released in 2020. These twelve records we have affectionately titled the NSMZ "Dirty Dozen" of 2020. You'll notice that the majority of these choices are from Saskatchewan. This is mainly to due with the fact that we are pretty much an entirely Saskatchewan based publication. Our only rule for our "dirty dozen" album choices is that the albums/records/EP's or whatever have to be Cancon and recorded in 2020.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy this bonus issue and congrats to all the winners. Here's to a great 2021! As always, please continue to support us by subscribing to our facebook page or by closely following and reading our articles. And, by all means, email us with comments, suggestions or even just to say hello at: thenorthsaskmusiczine@gmail.com. We look forward to feedback and ideas. Our goal has always been to provide as much exposure as we can to Saskatchewan artists and venues or anything else of note within the music business in this province. We will continue to do that in 2021.
Sincerely,
Scott Roos
(NSMZ Managing Editor)